Paul Simon biographer digs into the Sound of Silence

Jay Miller / For The Patriot Ledger

Thursday

Jun 14, 2018 at 2:27 PMJun 16, 2018 at 6:46 AM

Music journalist Robert Hilburn tends to pick out the most intriguing subjects for his books, like Johnny Cash (2013), but his finely detailed portraits present the subjects in all their many shadings, good and bad, and that can make their cooperation a delicate matter.

Which made his decision to write a biography of the notoriously private Paul Simon more challenging yet. Hilburn eventually struck an agreement with Simon that he would get access to the songwriter, but Simon would not have any editorial control over the final product. The result is the endlessly interesting "Paul Simon: The Life," released on Simon and Schuster on May 8.

Simon's "Farewell Tour" headlines TD Garden in Boston tonight, and after being enthralled by Hilburn's book over the past week or so, we talked with the author about his work. Journalists in general do not allow subjects of their stories clearance beforehand, although many show business bios are of course written with the subject's input and approval. Hilburn struck the ticklish balance of getting Simon to talk at length with him, without giving the star approval of the book.

"Well, that was interesting," said Hilburn from his Los Angeles-area home. "Getting the access I got was important, because Paul is such a private person. Believe me this book is as fully researched as my Johnny Cash book, and the reason we don't hear any juicy stories about Paul Simon is because he was simply in the studio about 95 percent of his time. The worst thing you could say about him might be that there wasn't always a balance in his life between his friends and family and the music."

Hilburn was the longtime music writer for the Los Angeles Times, and his interactions with Simon in that role over the years led to him wanting to attempt a biography like this.

"One thing was that Paul has been one of the most articulate musicians I've ever spoken with," said Hilburn. "And then I love songwriting, and this bio is almost a case study of songwriting, and how to protect it against time, fame, and all the other outside things that drain songwriters. The interesting thing about Paul is that he's always talking about new music, saying "let's listen to this new music I found.' I always worried about his reputation as a control freak; would he draw a line in the sand at some point? He never did, and the way he is in person is just the same as he appears anywhere."

We would count ourselves as a pretty knowledgeable Simon and Garfunkel, and Paul Simon, fan. Many of their fans probably realize that the duo had started out with teen-pop recordings under the moniker Tom and Jerry. But a fascinating part of Hilburn's book is that Simon had been haunting New York City music publishing houses for years, starting as a young teen, when he'd eventually try to mimic the songs he heard on the radio with his own tunes. He made a nice bit of money doing demos for other songwriters, to pitch their songs to those publishers, and while he'd begun singing with neighborhood kid Art Garfunkel in junior high, there was much more material out there of Simon alone, pushing his own or other people's songs, as he tried to get a foot in the door of the business.

"Paul Simon will be the first to tell you he wasn't born a songwriter," said Hilburn. "I knew about 'Hey Schoolgirl' with Tom and Jerry, but not the other stuff. Since Paul has never put out a bad album in my view, never anything less than a B or B-minus, I was desperate to get my hands on some of those old bootlegs and stuff. We finally got a hold of a collection of about 100 cuts, and listened to them together. He didn't have much to say, and it was easy to see why, since the songwriting was so pedestrian for about five years there. Someone with such intelligence and ambition and he was just copying pop hits. There was a pop hit back then 'Lipstick on Your Collar,' so he wrote a sequel, or an answer to that, called "I Want to be the Lipstick on Your Lips,' and it wasn't very good."

"So as a teen Paul had this drive to be a success," noted Hilburn. "But his songwriting got much better once he stopped cloning tunes from what he heard on the radio."

One amazing incident in that period came around the time of the Tom and Jerry recording, as Simon was still pursuing songwriting and recording on his own too. Garfunkel's father asked Simon's dad to have Paul sign a contract stipulating that he could only record in the duo with Art. Simon's father refused, and eventually the pair would part by the time they hit college. Studying poetry in college really helped transform Simon's songwriting, and he found his own voice as a writer.

"As an English major, Paul realized he liked working with words," said Hilburn, "and that started the road back. I feel like this is a case study of artistry, and there were all these clues that something happened, that he began digging inside. There are triggers like this we can try and pinpoint with any artist, and for Paul the JFK assassination may have been of them."

Simon has said before that his feelings after the John F. Kennedy killing led to him writing "Sound of Silence," which would eventually become his first big hit. But he was also establishing himself as a solo act, finding success in England even as the U.S. folk scene looked a bit askance at the former pop songsmith. When Simon finally came to the notice of Columbia Records, and they deemed him worthy of signing, there was one problem: Bob Dylan. Wary of having too many singer-songwriters, the record company suggested Simon would be better off as a group's leader, and that was how he reunited with Garfunkel, who'd been studying architecture at college.

Some other nuggets from the fascinating story include the fact that as the first versions of "Sound of Silence" and the first Simon and Garfunkel album were gaining a little notice around 1964, one of the best areas for the interest building in them was Boston. In those days of AM radio dominance, WBZ DJ Dick Summers was an early Simon and Garfunkel champion, before they really hit the charts.

How many people remember Simon and Garfunkel were among the driving forces behind the famed Monterrey Pop Festival? They had done much to organize the fest and then played on its opening, folk-oriented Friday night, only to see the harder rock acts that followed dominate the coverage.

"The Monterrey Pop thing was almost a death knell for bands like them," said Hilburn. "All those bands like Mamas and Papas were viewed as too soft for the way rock was going. Fortunately, Paul had been already moving towards music like 'Mrs. Robinson' and, partly due to his father's love of all music, he was always looking for new sounds."

Simon and Garfunkel would eventually split, both because Simon felt constricted by the duo format, and because the two old friends were just getting on each other's nerves. But the final issue was Garfunkel's acting career, and a long delay while he filmed 'Catch 22' started it, but his taking on a major role in "Carnal Knowledge" as Simon was crafting a new album, was the final straw.

Simon's most notable move towards finding new sounds was his landmark "Graceland" album, wherein he used South African music and musicians to build a fresh and rhythmically inventive blend of his own. While some lauded his reaching out to that sector, others accused him of cultural appropriation and others pointed to the "Sun City" album that supported a performers' boycott of the country and its apartheid. Simon was very tormented by the criticism.

"That was probably the worst commercial move he could make at the time, coming off the failure of his movie 'One Trick Pony,'" said Hilburn. "It was not strategy, but pure passion. The cultural appropriation thing was never as big a deal outside the United States. And Paul held those musicians in such high esteem, paying them triple-scale for their studio time, and having Joseph Shabalala and the bassist as focal points of the touring band he put together. And Ladysmith Black Mambazo became popular in the States like never before after that album."

One thing Hilburn does is print the full lyrics of some of Simon's hits, and also some deeper cuts, and it is revealing to see those lines, and absorb the poetry within them. Always seeking new frontiers, Simon was frustrated in recent years by the way his Broadway project "Capeman" floundered, but on a more personal level, his marriage to songwriter Edie Brickell has brought stability and even serenity to his life after several failed romances over the years.

"Edie was breaking into wide success when he met her," Hilburn noted. "But they have a great relationship, and of all the people in the world, she might be a MORE private person than he is. She just doesn't have that same drive like he does to be a bigger artist. She's brought a common sense and comfort to his life, a balance he needed."

"Paul's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' is saying he needs comfort, to me," added Hilburn. "The first couple lines there are the most truthful, and at the time he was dealing with tensions with Art, and some other issues, sure, but the main theme is just that search for comfort. He has that now with Edie."

Does the biographer believe this will really be Simon's "Farewell Tour"?

"Yes," said Hilburn. Maybe he'll do an occasional show or benefit after this, but the last time I caught him on tour in England, he was so tired from the road. Paul wants to spend more time with Edie and the kids, and maybe try something else, like writing a musical."